Animal crossing- Ma
by Fillynes
Summary: My name is Emilly Zabek or Emilly Roamer if you ask my dad (wherever he is). I live in a town filled with animals that can speak and walk upright! But as I try to make a new life in this town my parents seem to be insistent on finding me, and funnily enough it's not all fun and games in this animal town! What isn't Nook telling me, why was I brought here? Day Zero begin!
1. Chapter 1

It was dark. It was raining. I ran through the forest. I was scared, they were chasing me. It was late at night, must be nearly midnight by now. Mum and dad had always said to not go into the forest, it was dangerous and scary but I had no other choice. I hid behind a clump of bushes and trees sat on the muddy ground hugging my knees covering my ears with my hands. I heard someone step on a twig near me. I looked up with a start and the person hugged me. They felt warm and fluffy for some reason. The stranger whispered to me

"I'm not here to hurt you… lets go, you must be very scared." He took my hand and he led me quickly through the forest. Despite his high voice he was quite tall, just a hair shorter than me. As we ran the rain stopped and the shouting voices eventually faded away and we ended up the other side of the forest. The moonlight streamed down on a quaint little village below. There was a small shanty shop, a wishing well, a town hall and another small shop all nestled in amongst some small cute houses. We stood on a sheer cliff-side above a train station. I could see now the person holding my hand was actually a blue cat wearing a red and brown argyle jumper. He slowly led me down a pathway so I didn't fall and then took me to the shanty shop. He knocked on the door in a rhythmic pattern and an old tanuki opened the door for us.

"Another one?" he said with a hint of annoyance

"Yeah, sorry Nook" the blue cat said. The Tanuki sighed and opened the door wide saying

"These things must be done to help others, and so I shall help"

"Thank you..." The cat walked me into the warm shop. I hadn't realised how cold it was. The cold wouldn't have been helped by the fact I was soaked from the rain earlier and my clothes were covered in wet sticky mud.

"I only have a work uniform left over. Does she have a house yet?" Nook (I think that's what the cat called him) went over to a box behind a till on a counter and started rummaging around, looking for something.

"I just found her out in the woods Nook of course she doesn't"

"Then she'll have to work for me tomorrow" Nook said standing up and throwing a green dress at us. The blue cat caught it easily. "Now what's your name?" He demanded as he brought me a towel to dry myself off with "spit it out!"

"I- I'm Emily" I stammered

"Ah! A hard worker!" Nook replied

"P-pardon?"

"Emily means hard worker in many languages" Nook went behind the till and started scrabbling around looking for something again.

"O-oh… I didn't know"

"Well you are only young! Now let's get you signed up with the village hall" he walked back to me and handed me a pen and a form

"What?"

"So you can get mail and other services while you stay in this town!" I scanned the form quickly. It all seemed simple enough… I wrote down my name (Emilly Zabek), age (14), ticked my gender (girl) and handed it back to Nook. "… Really?" he said in disbelief

"What?"

"You're last name is Zabek?" He gave me a strange, unsure look "You do know what that means don't you?"

"N- no s- sir" he paused for a minute and then looked from me to the cat and then back to me…

"It means little tooth… your name literally means 'Hard working little tooth'…" I giggled a little and then said

"That's just the name mum makes me use! My dad lest us when I was little so she went back to having her old name which is Zabek but my first last name was Roamer!"

"Aaaaaaaaah! A hard working traveller! Makes more sense than Zabek!" Nook laughed as he put my form on top of a pile of letters. "I shall deliver this in the morning."

"Thanks for your help Nook... got any spare houses?" The cat spoke up

"Of course I do. Can't sell the things since all the others who have come through town leave a week after they've settled in!"

"Well this one needs a home. Can you point us in the right direction?" Nook gave a heavy sigh and pulled out a map from his apron pocket.

"Follow the river down past Muffy's house and then up past Able sisters- you might want to stop in and see if they have anything spare to lend you Emily, at least until you can make your own money. From there it's a simple walk past the three peach trees and you're there. Any questions or should I just walk you there?"

"We can make our way Nook. Thanks again."

"Anytime Rover. Now off you go I need to get some-" Nook yawned covering his mouth with a paw "I need to get some sleep"

"Ok, we'll leave you to it." We said goodbye and Rover led me down the rout Nook had said. We eventually ended up in front of a small white house with a green roof. It was next to the river and had a few pansies growing around it. I shivered clutching hold of the dress Nook had given me. I didn't want to change in case I got it dirty on the way over.

"There should be a set of night wear inside. I'll let you settle in for the night." Rover said before turning to leave"

"Wait!" I grabbed his sleeve "I've no idea where I am, who you are or what's going on and you're just going to leave me here?!" The cat pause looking at me and then said

"There's only one bed in that house. Even if I was going to look after you we would either have to share a bed or one of us would sleep on the floor."

"That isn't what I asked-"

"Then wait until tomorrow" he released himself from my grip and left… I was grateful he saved me… but I have so little information about what's going on that really, I just want someone to tell me what's going on…

I went inside and as Rover had said there was a set of pink and white striped bed clothes on top of a bed with blue bed sheets, a chair by the window and a lava lamp. A note was on top of the bedclothes. It read:

"Leave any dirty clothes by the front door.

Any clean clothes are to be kept in your pockets until you get a wardrobe/chest of draws.

You break it, you pay for us to repair it!

-Timmy and Tomy-"

I left my muddy dress by the front door and changed into the nightwear. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something shine. But as soon as I looked around it was gone… strange… I lay in the bed and closed my eyes… It was warm and soft, unlike the one I had at home. At home I had thin blankets that didn't keep me warm enough unless it was a very hot summer night but I would be too hot on nights like that. Mum said she couldn't afford to get me a new mattress so I was stuck with an old one which creaked and had springs sticking through the material…

Day zero: ended.

Day one: right, now where am I?


	2. Chapter 2- Day 1 morning

Day one: Right, now where am I?

Emily POV:

I took two deep breaths. I have to calm down. I can't let _him _see he upset me… I hate _him_. I hate waking up to see him stood there. He hates me and I hate him… but mum loves him… so…

I opened my eyes to see an unfamiliar room around me. I sat up dazed and confused… where am I? I looked around and saw the uniform Nook had given me on a chair by the window. The chair was pink and it had a purple cover thrown over it. I picked up the clashing uniform (as it was now starting to hurt my eyes) and looked around at the dark room. I noticed some things I hadn't before… The walls were made up of long pieces of wood in a pattern (four pieces stacked on top of each other horizontally and one next to the stack placed vertically) with a clock hung by the door and a candle hung on the opposite wall. By my bed was a small table in the shape if a mushroom. There wasn't much else in the room apart from a grey radio, the lava lamp and an amazing carpet! It had different hues of blues, purples and pinks in a strange watery shape. Naturally I found myself staring at that for a while before the clock chimed eight o'clock and the radio started playing. The little display on the radio simply said "8 am". I decided to keep it on. It was upbeat and I needed something to keep me awake. I'm so sleepy!

Taking the dress I went to a room to the left of the door to see if it was a bathroom. Well I tried to, it was locked for some reason. It was strange, I hadn't been given any keys… not for the front door or this room or this house! I eventually turned away from the door and saw another, open, room the other side of the door. The floor was covered in mosaic tiles and the walls white. There was also a toilet, a mirror, a bathtub, a shower and a little table in the middle of the room with a comb and various shampoos, lotions and whatnots on it. Having pulled on the dress I combed my bed head flat and pulled the messy hair into a plait. Despite my previous attempts to grow my hair it was still only shoulder length. Looking in the mirror I struggled to recognise the tired face of a pale grey-eyed girl that was looking back at me. She was so different from the bright eyed happy girl in all of mums photos… but they were all at least a year or two old by now.

Suddenly I heard a few small taps on the door. Flattening down my dress and tucking my bangs behind my ears I walked towards the door. The door was a bit creaky and stiff but it opened easily enough. Looking around I couldn't see anyone until a small cough brought my attention towards the ground. In front of me, coming up to my knee height, were two tanukis in blue aprons.

"Ahem, my name is Timmy"

"And I am Tommy"

"We work for Tom Nook and as of today"

"So do you" Looking down at them in slight shock I tried to regain my senses as quickly as possible so I didn't seem rude. "You must be confused" Tommy continued.

"We would be too"

"Our uncle"

"Tom Nook"

"Wants you to work for him so you can"

"Start paying off your debt"

"For the house"

"Follow us!"

"Us yes!"

I blinked a couple of times but followed obediently closing the door behind me.

"You'll want to know who our customers are" Tommy (I think) continued

"So here's a map with the names of the rest of the towns folk!" Timmy ended. They handed me a folded piece of paper with a bird's eye view of the town. Scanning the map I quickly found my house, it was in the bottom right by the river we were walking next to. My closest neighbours were Muffy (Nook mentioned her last night), Alfonso and Fauna. The other side of the river were two more houses belonging to Pudge and Cheri. Right at the very top were the two last houses belonging to Marshal and Aurora. The shops and town hall were grouped in an area just beyond the train station and Nooks shop was right on the end of the central line of shops.

"Any questions?" Timmy asked. I looked up to answer him but found myself walking strait into a tree.

Silence.

I started peeling myself off the tree and held a hand to my pounding head… I wanted to say something but the only word I could get myself to say was

"oops"

"O-oh my! Are you ok?!" A voice came from behind me. I collapsed on the floor from dizziness.

"Y- yeah I'm fine…" I opened my eyes to see five penguins gathered round me… all of them were black and white penguins wearing a red shirt with pink flower patterns on it… "Are you quintuplets?" As my vision re-focused and the five penguins became one I realised my mistake. "s- Sorry!" I said quickly as I tried to stand.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"hahahahahahahahaha!" Timmy and Tommy had started laughing…

"It's not funny you two!" The penguin said in a concerned voice as she helped me up. The penguin picked up my map and handed it to me. I now realised she only came up to my shoulder and that I had knocked the fruit (peaches) off the tree. Two seemingly un-related facts that will be crucial as you keep reading

"Hey stop breaking the fourth wall!" Timmy and Tommy shouted.

Sorry…

"So what's your name?" The penguin said looking up at me

"I-I'm Emily…"

"Glad to see you're not concussed! I'm Aurora" She smiled and held out a hand… or should I say flipper… "Nice to meet you!"

"You too" I said rather quietly taking her flipper and shaking it.

"Ahem" a rather harsh cough broke the moment "I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but Emily is late for work!" Nook had appeared while me and Aurora were chatting.

"Sorry Mr. Nook" Aurora bowed as she addressed him "She was injured and I was making sure she was ok"

"Is that so?" I thought I saw Nook glare at the twins (I assume Timmy and Tommy are twins anyway…) but as quickly as it had happened he had regained his all but constant stare back at me. "Well I'm sorry to say Emily has no more time for conversations!" Nook said in a huff walking towards us. "It's time she-" you remember those peaches? "WOAH!"

Nook slipped on a peach and skated forwards diving head first into the nearby river…

Rover POV:

"Ah there you are Rover!" Isabelle said in her normal cheerful voice. "Nook gave me the forms for the new child in town. Emily right?" The clock ticked on endlessly as Tortimire snoozed away in his chair at the back of the office.

"Yeah that's her name." I sat on the leather sofa in front of the front desk. I folded my arms and closed my eyes bowing my head. I'd been up all night last night trying to sort some stuff out for Emily.

"She seems nice" Isabelle continued as she scribbled some notes on the forms "Well, I haven't met her yet but Tom seemed to like her."

"Yeah, he always likes the kids who pass through. Reminds him he can make things better after his city days." I heard Isabelle sigh a little and rest her pen down. "Paw cramp?"

"I've been writing for about two hours straight." She was shaking her paw trying to release some of the pain from her tiny yellow appendage… She's kinda cute when she doesn't notice she's being cute. "It's cause the mayors not doing so well… I don't think he's going to last all that much longer" I opened one eye and looked at the tiny yellow dog sat behind the desk. She was looking over at the wrinkled up turtle behind his desk snoring his cares away. "I mean… as Mayor. Turtles live for ever. He'll probably outlive us!" She said turning back to me trying to smile.

"Yeah. He should go live on an island. He'd love that." I said smiling at Isabel.

"That would be nice. Lucky man!" She giggled

"That's it!" Tortemire sat up with a start and fell off his chair leaving the shell where he had been snoozing. "An island! We must invest in an island!" Is he serious?

"Good morning Mr. Mayor, your coffee is on the table by your paper work."

"Isabel! To the vault! We need… we we need… an island vault..." He fell asleep on the floor…

"At least he's lively today" Isabell said cheerfully giggling a little.

"Aha are you sure the coffee is a good idea?" I joked.

"He insists I make him some but he never drinks it. Normally I re-heat it and leave it for him just in case."

"Ew week old coffee! Brewster would kill you if he knew!"

"Yeah but we wasted so much of the treasury on his morning coffee at the café it made more sense if I made it" We had a bit of a laugh and the atmosphere went back to the calm of normal everyday work mode.

"Hey Isabelle…" I reached into my left pocket and held onto some tickets I'd bought us "are you… um… free Friday night?"

"Yeah I think so." She looked up to me and gave me those adorable puppy eyes and I felt my manly persona slowly fade into a puddle of awkwardness.

"E- I… I have-"

"But uncle it wasn't us!"

"wasn't us!"

"If you two had just done your job and brought Emily to the shop as promised-"

"We were!"

"Were!"

"Shush! We're at town hall now so be quiet! I need to talk to Isabell about those forms!" A set of three short sharp taps echoed around the hall.

"Come in!" said Isabell. I sighed and put the K.K. slider tickets back into my pocket before the door opened and the twin disaster zones entered the building. As soon as Nook started talking to Isabell I had Timmy tugging on my ears, Tommy pulling my tail, Aurora trying to keep the piece and poor Emily had about five letters, one carpet, a dress, a present, various items of small furniture and stationary all in a pile as she tried to balance what she could in her arms and on her head. The mayor occasionally chimed in with all the ruckus shouting ideas about his Vault Island before falling asleep again and repeating the process of waking up, shouting and going back to sleep again.

"Emily, you go make those deliveries! I'll be a while with Isabell"

"Yes sir" a tiny voice came from behind the leaning tower of deliveries. I sighed and stood up.

"I'll help her Nook. You're working the poor thing too hard. You better pay her as much though."

"Yes, yes Rover go help the small hard working tooth. As I said I will be a while."

-Morning end-


	3. Chapter 3- Day 1- Afternoon

-The afternoon, Tom Nook POV- I asked Aurora to take Timmy and Tommy back to the shop while I talked to Isabelle.

"The paperwork is all here Mr Nook." Isabelle said cheerfully as usual. I flicked through the yellow sheets and the pink forms. Everything was as I would expect from Isabelle. She is an excellent worker as her file suggested. But however much she tried to she could not hide what the outside world had done to her. Her eyes were tired despite it only being noon. "Great work as usual Isa-" I never thought I'd see this form being used again. A red form. This meant the poor girl... "how traumatised is this poor thing?" I said looking at Isabelle.

"She... She's very hurt..."

"How long does she have before the transformation?"

"..." Isabelle didn't dare speak.

"Isabelle please." I pressed but Isabelle stayed silent.

"One week" the mayor's voice came. "One week before the town consumes her."

"That's not possible... It took Isabelle at least two weeks and-" "It took you and your "Nephews" three days." I winced as the memories came flooding back "It took me just one"

"It gets worse..." Isabelle said quietly.

"How can it get worse?!" I nearly shouted

"Apollo has seen a man skulking around the boarders of the forest. He matches the description Rover gave us..." I stood there dumbfounded. "Tall, wide shoulders, wirery hair, dark eyes"

"I understand Isabelle. I know how the man looks. I just..." I was shaking "how did he find us?" Isabelles eyes lit up with understanding. The gravity of the situation dawned on the poor girl and I could see how frightened the poor thing was.

"I see..." the mayor said slowly and thoughtfully "he's going to be like that is he." the mayor's usually cheerful demeanour was suddenly replaced with the cold and calculating man he really was. "He's a slimy one isn't he. If he's insisting on following her to the ends of the earth like this then he really has some issues."

"Tortimer... What do we do?" Isabelle turned to face the old tortoise.

"We wait."

"What?"

"We have a week to either rehome her, chase him away or wait for him to get bored. A week is a long time young's."

"No it's not!" I shouted "No it is not! A month, yes, a year yes. A week is hardly anything!"

"You can build and renovate houses in less than 24 hours." Tortimer chided me "So why not-"

"Mr Nook! I'm all finished with the deliveries!" Emily entered and behind her Rover entered. Rover yawned and slumped onto the couch before falling asleep. "He's exhausted… he said he had another 'night shift tonight' so he's had like five cups of coffee at the roost but…" a thundering snore came out of Rover before silence descended again.

"I'll let him stay here" Isabelle said holding back some tears. I'll sighed and looked at the clock behind Isabelle. The town hall bells started to chime for four in the afternoon.

"I'll walk you home Emily." I said to the young girl "We have some things we need to talk about."

"Ah oh… oh k" she replied cautiously.

We left the town hall and started walking.

"Listen Emily" I started. "There's something I should tell you." She looked over to me and smiled

"Yes Mr Nook?"

-Afternoon end-

(Authors note: Apologies for the mix up in names! I hadn't even noticed. Thank you for those who pointed it out to me)


	4. Chapter 4- Day 1 Evening

Ch4 Day 1-evening-

There has always been a group of houses here. No one knows why but they've been here. Small houses with tiny tiled roofs. Not large enough for a normal human family but maybe just big enough for a child to stay in.

One day a young boy found this town. He was very sad. He has seen things no son should ever see. Felt things no boy should ever be made to feel. He was scared. Alone. Afraid. He hid in one of the houses. Then he heard them coming. He hid in one of the houses. They kicked in the doors one by one. As he hid in the corner he heard the voices grow louder… and louder… and then… they all went away. He never did learn why they just left… The boy stayed in the house as the sun went down. He looked around. There wasn't any furniture, no wallpaper. Nothing. He lay on the floor below the window and fell asleep.

When he woke up he found he had turned into a tortoise. From then on whenever the people came to look all they found was the tortoise boy and left.

"Do you see what I'm trying to say?" Tom said as we walked along the river. "If you stay here you'll turn into one of us." I nodded trying to understand. "Isabell reckons you have a week before you turn into an animal."

"I see…"

"Look. This is a lot to take in. I suggest you go to bed and we can discuss what we want to do in the morning. OK?" I nodded and we approached my door.

"Goodnight Nook" I said in a monotone

"Goodnight hardworking tooth." He started walking away. I walked into my house and flopped onto the bed. I heard a tap on my window. Looking up I saw a pelican with a letter in his hand.

"You don't have a letterbox!" His muffled voice came through the window. I opened up the window sluggishly and he handed me the letter. "You look exhausted! Get some rest, I'm sure I'll see you in the morning with more letters, goodnight!" and with that he hopped away. I sat on my bed and considered all that Nook had said to me. I lay back and closed my eyes…

Sleep would do me good I tried to convince myself…

But images of mum and HIM filled my mind. I'd been so distracted here I hadn't realised it had been twenty four hours since I left… I hope he wasn't taking it out on mum…

-Day 1 end-

Next time: Mums letter…


End file.
